To Invest in People...

Allow me to talk for the next few minutes about a personal thing in my life.

I spent the summer of 2003 in Thailand, specifically Bangkok, doing missions work with a team from my college and another Assembly of God school. There were 8 of us in our group who all worked together: Crystal and Rebecca, 2 of the greatest ladies that could be on a trip like that with me, who were, like me, from Evangel, and Mark, Dylan, Jasper, Duffy, and Niina all from Washington State, and amazing people in their own right. We became very close during this trip, forming something of a family bond. The missionary we worked with was Alan Johnson, a fulltime missionary to Thailand for 20 years. He spoke Thai fluently and led us all over the place; to slums to minister to the poor families, to putting on outreach services for youth, to Thai churches, and to other villages where we would have the priviledge to minister. His amazing wife Lynette would cook our food (what a great cook she was) and do our laundry. In addition to working with Alan and the other 7 students, I also got to work with the youth at International Christian Assembly (or ICA Bangkok), which was an English speaking church that had over 30 nations represented. These couple of months were some of the best in my life.

Alan and Lynette were like parents to us when we were there. I look back most fondly on the meals. In addition to feasting on great food (did I mention Lynette was a fabulous cook?), we would often have deep conversation about spiritual topics: the strategy of missions in Thailand, what Jesus meant when he said "The greatest will be the least and the least will be the greatest," how to treat people and show them the love of Christ, what it meant to be a great leader etc. I have never met anyone in my life who was more intentional with his conversations or who utilized opportunities to disciple young people better than Alan. I feel that I grew more in those months than I have in any other similar period in my life. Now, 3 years later, 4 of those 8 have gone back to Thailand for longer missionary stints, and 2 of those plan on being there full time. 2 are full time youth pastors. 1 is involved in various ministries in his home town. The last is an elementary school teacher in Missouri. 8 college students, from different states, with different goals and dreams and different reasons for going to Thailand, are now all changing the world and investing in people. I wonder how much of that is due to Alan being so intentional with us and the time we had, how much he believed in us, and how much he lived out and showed us what a leader who is sold out for God and people should be.

I leave tomorrow to drive 10+ hours to go visit Alan. The way it works is they spend 4 years in the field, followed by 1 year at home. If I don't take this opportunity to see him now, I may not get to spend time with him for a long time. My wife and I are struggling financially, and I am plenty busy at the church. But, for me to not do everything I can to connect with Alan at this time would be, I feel, bad stewardship on my part. Such is the effect that Alan was able to have on me in one summer.

May we all follow his example. May we all value people in an incredible way. May we intentionally pour ourselves into the next generation of world changers. Thank you Alan, for the difference you have made in my life, and countless others.